Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 137 Kill the General and Capture the Flag
"A word is settled!"

Inside the tent, although Zhang Huaishen offered extremely harsh conditions, Liu Jilong still agreed.

Seeing that he agreed, Zhang Huaishen pondered and said, "Since you have agreed, don't let your people deceive my soldiers."

Obviously, Zhang Huaishen had seen Liu Jilong's behavior these days, but he didn't point it out.

The purpose of negotiating with Liu Jilong now is nothing more than to recover the three states of Lan and Hui and avoid conflicts in the future.

The soldiers of Shandan are strong and good at fighting. They are more elite than the old soldiers of Shazhou and are more literate. Zhang Huaishen will naturally not give up on them.

With 1,200 veteran soldiers and 3,000 new soldiers in Shandan, plus his own direct lineage in Zhangye, Zhang Huaishen was confident that he could consolidate his position.

Liu Jilong noticed his confidence and naturally guessed why he was so confident.

It’s a pity that his confidence is only sufficient for dealing with Hexi, but once the Tang court intervenes, his confidence will collapse.

The people of Hexi trusted the Tang court too much. As long as the Tang court intervened and the powerful people instigated, Zhang Huaishen's position would be unstable.

To deal with the powerful... the only way is to kill them!

"I have also left you the students from the school I run in Shandan. I hope you can make good use of them."

Liu Jilong hesitated before speaking, which made Zhang Huaishen's expression pause slightly.

After a while, Zhang Huaishen reacted and said with complicated eyes: "You are so generous that I am a little overwhelmed."

"Just don't urge me to pay back the Wuquan." Liu Jilong shook his head and smiled bitterly. Zhang Huaishen could only smile bitterly with him to hide his embarrassment.

The two have known each other for more than two years, but they never thought that it would come to the point where "brothers would settle accounts clearly."

"Now that we have reached an agreement, I will return to the camp."

Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Liu Jilong stood up and bowed. Zhang Huaishen did not stop him and just watched him leave the tent.

As the sound of horse hooves rang out outside the tent, he picked up the teacup and took a sip.

Although the tea is bitter, it will eventually become sweet after tasting it...

"Beep!!"

"Boom bang bang-"

Outside the tent, a new round of attack started again. Stones flew out continuously, smashing the walls of Guzang and causing dust to rise.

Stones were thrown from time to time in Guzang City, but the distance was too far, so only stones weighing more than 20 kilograms could be thrown.

Most of these stones fell in front of the formation, and a small number hit the catapults.

In order to protect the catapult, Zhang Huaishen ordered his troops to move back fifty steps.

Soon, the army had retreated fifty steps, and the damaged catapults had their parts replaced.

A distance of fifty steps is nothing for the catapults of the Guiyi Army, but it is like a natural moat for the catapults of Guzang City.

In order to hit the catapults of the Guiyi Army, they had to reduce the weight of the stones again, which made the power of the stones even smaller.

It was clearly fifty trebuchets against seventy, but the Guiyi Army still managed to overwhelm the Guzang defenders.

From the first to the seventh day of April, for seven whole days, they performed the parachutes day and night without stopping, and even the leather belt used for parachuting was changed three times.

Within seven days, the walls of Guzang city were visibly damaged.

On the first day, the walls of Guzang were only riddled with pits, but the catapults in the city were not damaged.

On the second day, the walls of Guzang began to collapse, but thanks to the thickness of the walls, even though some parts had collapsed, most of them were still intact.

On the third day, the city wall collapsed in various places, and after several rounds of stone throwing, many of the already collapsed areas gradually became thinner.

By the fourth day, a gap was made in the west city wall, and most of the wall collapsed, with soil splashing everywhere and pouring down to the base of the wall.

Even though Shang Moling sent people to repair it, the Guiyi Army did not give him a chance. The catapults attacked day and night, not only destroying the two catapults in Guzang, but also further widening the gap.

By the fifth day, the west city of Guzang was already leaking wind on all sides, and it was even worse on the sixth day.

By the seventh day, the West City was no longer as majestic as it once was. It was less than two miles long, but was filled with more than ten gaps of varying sizes.

Some of these gaps are no more than seven feet high and less than ten feet wide, while others are only five or six feet high and two or three feet wide.

The thick wall foundation is built with stones, so it cannot be destroyed, and the horn of attack is about to be sounded.

At noon on the seventh day of April, 3,000 Guiyi soldiers from Ximen gathered in front of the battle line. Each man was fully armed, and the armor pieces reflected the sunlight, making him look very sacred.

Only thirty-two of the fifty trebuchets remained due to insufficient leather belts or damaged parts, but they had completed their mission.

The next task will be solved by three thousand armored soldiers and more than ten cloud vehicles!
"Pass on my military order. Zhang Chang will lead 500 armored soldiers to guard the South Gate, and Suo Xun will lead 1,500 men to rush to the West Gate for support."

"In a quarter of an hour, the soldiers at the west gate will push the cloud chariot to attack the city. The first one to reach the city will be promoted three levels and rewarded with a thousand strings of cash!"

On horseback, Zhang Huaishen had a solemn expression, and the fifteen captains in front of him bowed one after another to receive his orders.

"Uuuuuu——"

In an instant, the horn sounded, and fifteen regiments with three thousand people pushed fifteen cloud chariots and launched an attack on Guzang.

"Boom boom boom——"

Drums were beating in Guzang City, and the Guzang foreign soldiers who had been trapped for more than 20 days began to regain their spirits.

Shang Moling, wearing armor, walked on the ruins and looked out of the city along the gap.

When he saw the Guiyi Army launching an attack, he immediately drew the long sword from his waist and gave orders to more than ten generals including Zhe Bu Luo.

"Seize the horse path. If these Han slaves get close to the gap, we will use boiling water and falling rocks to deal with them!"

"Guard the gaps everywhere, and you will be rewarded one string of silver for every Han slave you kill!"

"Whoosh-"

As Shang Moling issued the military order, the foreign soldiers, who had originally shown signs of decline, immediately perked up.

Soon, the gap where he was standing was blocked by a knife-blocking cart pushed by the foreign soldiers.

As the name suggests, the gate-blocking cart was originally used to block the city gates. The cart stands on a thick wooden board with a thick long knife inserted on the board.

If the cavalry attacked the city gate, they would run into the knife-blocking carts that blocked the gate and die in the corridor.

Zhang Huaishen did not attack the city wall or the city gate, but chose to attack the city wall.

Because of this, Shang Moling and others chose to use the gate knife car to deal with it.

After the gate knife car blocks the gap, if you want to cross the gap, you need to have a height of at least ten feet.

However, this height is nothing to the Guiyi Army.

The sound of wheels and shouting could be heard outside the city. The Guiyi Army to the west of the city was divided into fifteen teams, each of which pushed the cloud chariot across the stone bridge and across the moat.

As they reached the eastern bank of the moat, they began to move toward the nearest gap.

"Fire arrows!"

"Formation!!"

When the Danggui rebels crossed the moat, the battlefield immediately became lively.

At some point the foreign soldiers who had climbed up onto the broken city wall began to attack with bows and crossbows, while the armored soldiers of the Guiyi Army raised their shields and pushed the cloud chariot into the gap.

Two soldiers swung their swords to cut the ropes that secured the cloud chariot, causing the wooden boards on the chariot to fall down immediately.

The wooden planks hit the top of the gate knife cart, forming an uphill path.

The armored soldiers raised their shields and rushed towards the cloud chariot, while the foreign soldiers hiding on both sides of the gap began to throw stones, pour boiling water, or draw their bows and shoot arrows at the faces of the Guiyi Army soldiers.

The scalding water was blocked by the shield, but the heavy stones knocked the man to the ground.

The armored soldiers of the Guiyi Army jumped down the ladders, but more of them rushed forward.

The armored soldiers who could not form a line formed a battle array at the foot of the city and drew their bows and arrows to interfere with the foreign soldiers on the top of the city.

Since the parapet on the top of the city was almost destroyed by the catapults, anyone who showed their head would be fired upon.

The archers from both sides were interfering with each other, while some soldiers of the Guiyi Army rushed over the ladders.

Before they could react, they saw a front row of foreign soldiers gathered together, pointing their two-meter-long spears at them, and behind the spearmen were archers.

As the armored soldiers of the Guiyi Army rushed to the end of the cloud chariot, the foreign soldiers in the city immediately pulled the trigger and released arrows.

Dozens of arrows hit them at a distance of less than ten steps. Some of them survived, but more were shot through the cheeks and fell into the city, falling into the spear formation of the foreign soldiers.

If they were still breathing, the foreign soldiers would use blunt weapons to smash them to death and drag the bodies to the rear.

For those who are already dead, the step of finishing off the enemy will be skipped and they will be directly dragged to the back.

When the two sides came into close combat, the number of casualties of the Guiyi Army was shocking.

But even facing such a situation, Zhang Huaishen remained unmoved.

Under his gaze, cloud chariots were placed in more than a dozen gaps, and the armored soldiers climbed on the cloud chariots and rushed into the city. The shouts and wailing could not be covered up even from hundreds of steps away, and all the tragic scenes seemed to be right before his eyes.

"Formation!"

"Beep--"

Those Guiyi troops who jumped into the city began to blow whistles and form a battle array subconsciously, but most of them were drowned in the long spears and short weapons of the foreign soldiers.

Facts have proved that people like Liu Jilian are always a minority, and more armored soldiers often lose their lives the moment they climb the ladder first.

The soldiers of the Guiyi Army kept jumping into the city along the ladders. Even though most of them were killed on the spot, a few lucky ones managed to gain a foothold.

"Uuuuuu——"

The horn sounded at the third gap on the left side of the city gate, and the Guiyi Army that had not rushed into the city rushed to the third gap.

"follow me!"

Shang Moling, who was supervising the battle not far from the city gate, heard the horn. His expression changed drastically and he hurriedly led more than 500 elite cavalrymen under his command to rush to the place where the horn sounded.

When they rushed around the corner, they saw more than a hundred Guzang armored soldiers besieging less than twenty Guiyi soldiers.

What was even more terrifying was that these twenty Guiyi soldiers had already formed a battle formation, and armored soldiers were constantly jumping down from the gap behind them, and immediately joined them after they recovered.

"Beep--"

"kill!!"

Shang Moling urged his troops and horses to charge towards the gap. More than 500 elite cavalrymen occupied the street less than 20 steps wide under the city wall and rushed to the gap like a torrent. When the sound of horse hooves sounded, Guzang's armored soldiers retreated to both sides of the street, and the torrent of elite cavalry also instantly submerged the Guiyi Army at the gap.

After the elite cavalry rushed through the street, the hiding foreign soldiers immediately rushed forward and blocked the gap again.

"Uuuuuu——"

"go!"

Before Shang Moling could rest, a horn sounded again in front.

He shook the reins and urged his horses to charge towards the sound of the horn, but the West City was now leaking everywhere, and the elite cavalry led by him and Zhe Buluo were not enough to reverse the situation.

Soon, the Guiyi Army gained a firm foothold and continued to bring their brothers outside the city into the city.

As the number of Guiyi troops in the city exceeded one hundred, the elite cavalry charge was no longer effective.

Shang Moling and his men turned their horses around and withdrew from the battlefield. They began to summon the armored soldiers at the north and south city gates to resist the enemy, and the elite cavalry also dismounted and formed a battle formation.

Under the scorching sun, the flags of the Guiyi Army fluttered in the wind inside Guzang City. Soldiers who continued to pour into the city formed a battle formation and pressed forward with firm steps.

Faced with the bravery of the Guiyi Army, the foreign soldiers stationed in various gaps could not help but panic and their front lines began to loosen.

"Recapture Guzang! Today! Kill!!"

The voices of the generals echoed in their ears, and the sound of the horn gave the soldiers of the Guiyi Army strength out of thin air.

Faced with the panicked foreign soldiers, they formed a battle formation and pressed forward step by step. As their spears clashed, the foreign soldiers kept retreating and were finally forced onto the main road.

"Don't lose your balance!"

"Form a formation and collide with them, you pig-dog bastards! What are you afraid of!"

On the main road of Guzang, Shang Moling couldn't help cursing as he felt his side was constantly retreating.

But no matter how he cursed, he could not stop the Guiyi Army that was approaching like a tsunami.

"kill!!"

"Uuuuuu——"

Suddenly, louder trumpet calls and shouts of killing were heard from the rear of the Guiyi Army.

Suo Xun at the South Gate led 1,500 armored soldiers and rushed into the city through the unguarded West Gate, charging into the battle line first.

Under his leadership, the Guiyi Army soldiers tried to attack the foreign soldiers on the main road from various alleys, attacking them wave after wave.

Faced with the Guiyi Army's continuous attacks like waves, the foreign soldiers lost one stone wall after another.

Even though Shang Moling led them to stabilize their position again and again, the morale of the Guiyi Army was high, and with Suo Xun leading the team to attack fiercely, their offensive became more and more fierce. Every impact made the stone wall tremble, as if even the earth felt the shock of this life-and-death battle.

Although the foreign soldiers fought back bravely after stabilizing their position, they could only retreat under the attack of the Guiyi Army.

"Qiliben, we can't hold on any longer!"

Seeing the situation gradually deteriorating, Zhe Bu Luo roared at Shang Moling unwillingly.

"Dog Hannu!!"

Shang Moling roared, but his body was still escorted backwards by the armored soldiers.

"Qiliben, retreat!"

"Qiliben, give the order quickly!"

"Qiliben..."

In an instant, Shang Moling's ears were filled with voices of persuasion.

No matter how unwilling he was, he could not change the fact that Guzang had fallen.

"withdraw!!"

As he growled this word, the armored soldiers beside him immediately escorted him to retreat towards the east gate.

Not only them, but also many generals and soldiers retreated towards the east gate.

In the direction of the east gate, Zhe Buluo had already arranged people to escort the families of the generals to the East Town on the other side of the Macheng River, and released elite cavalry in all directions.

As the shouting and screaming in the city gradually approached, the families of the generals in Dongxiao City turned pale.

Perhaps they never dreamed that they would be driven out of Liangzhou.

“Retreat! Retreat!!”

More than a dozen elite cavalrymen rode over and rushed into the East Town, constantly waving to the foreign soldiers at the city gate.

Seeing this, the soldiers at the city gate opened the gate quickly and said, "Everyone, hurry out of the city and wait outside!"

For a moment, family members scrambled to leave the city, while the shouting and screaming from behind were getting closer and closer.

In less than a quarter of an hour, hundreds of family members left the city one after another, followed by a large number of soldiers and horses being driven out of the city.

Along with the troops and horses, more than a thousand armored soldiers led by Shang Moling also withdrew from the east gate.

Some armored soldiers stayed behind to cover the retreat, while the elite cavalry with superb horsemanship escorted Shang Moling and others across the stone bridge, through the small town on the east bank of the Macheng River, and onto their horses.

"Everyone get on your horses and head for Huizhou!"

Shang Moling spoke urgently, and the armored soldiers who rushed out mounted their horses one after another.

"Beep--"

Suddenly, a shrill whistle sounded from the south. Shang Moling's pupils shrank, and he immediately looked at Zhe Buluo and other generals who had just withdrawn:

"Enemy attack from the south, retreat!"

"withdraw!!"

For a moment, they no longer waited for the elite cavalry who had not yet withdrawn from Guzang, but instead took the elite cavalry who had withdrawn first and escorted their families to break out to the northeast.

Their horses were very fast, but the horses of the Guiyi Army were even faster.

"Beep--"

The shrill whistle sounded again in the south, and the Sanchen Flag appeared on the land in the south.

The elite cavalry of Ganzhou formed a large group, holding the Three Stars flag high in the formation, and launched a pursuit towards them.

"Liu Jilong!!"

Looking at the gradually approaching flag with the word "Liu" on it, Shang Moling's eyes were red with anger.

Seeing that they could not break out, Shang Moling hurriedly reined in his horse and said, "Escort the family first, we will cover the rear!"

As he reined in his horses, hundreds of Guzang elite cavalrymen also reined in their horses, leaving only less than a hundred elite cavalrymen escorting the generals' families to flee to Huizhou.

Under their gaze, Ganzhou's elite cavalry sent hundreds of men to chase after their families, while the main force charged towards them.

"kill!!"

Shang Moling snatched the spear from the soldier beside him, charged forward with the spear in hand, and all the elite cavalry followed behind him.

At the same time, two torrents of cavalry launched a charge.

The distance was less than two hundred steps, and it only took a few breaths.

"kill!"

"Bam—"

"Xilulu!!"

"Uh-huh!"

In an instant, the torrents collided and countless people were thrown to the ground.

Liu Jilian leaped up on his horse, wielded his spear and knocked down two foreign generals. As he landed, he pulled out his blunt weapon and knocked down another man. He continued to charge forward and charged into the elite cavalry formation of Guzang, followed closely by Hu Siguang and others.

The two elite cavalrymen fought each other for only one time, and Liu Jilian killed no less than ten of them.

After he rushed out of the Guzang elite cavalry formation, he quickly turned his horse around and re-entered the formation, knocking down seven or eight people, and went after Shang Moling's big banner.

"Follow the governor... and kill!!"

Liu Jilian's bravery was witnessed by everyone, and all his elite cavalry fought hard.

Huke Siguang and Li Ji followed behind Liu Jilong, one on the left and one on the right, to protect him from sneak attacks from behind. Liu Jilong, holding a long spear and a blunt weapon, fought left and right, killing and injuring dozens of people before getting out.

His two breakthroughs into the enemy camp not only inspired the elite cavalry of Ganzhou, but also made the elite cavalry of Guzang terrified.

"Those who dismount and surrender will not be killed!"

Liu Jilong raised his arms and shouted, but before the foreign soldiers could react, he saw arrows shooting at him from their formation.

In the blink of an eye, Liu Jilong was hit by several arrows, but because he dodged in time, most of the arrows hit his chest and were blocked by his armor.

Without waiting for the foreign soldiers to react, Liu Jilong rode his horse into the formation and found the archer in a moment.

"Liu Jilong!!"

Shang Moling dropped his bow and arrow, pulled out the spear from the ground and stabbed at him. Zhe Buluo also quickly raised his bow and shot three arrows in succession.

Liu Jilong dodged the arrows by crawling on the horse's back and thrust out his iron spear.

Shang Moling only felt a flash before his eyes, and when he reacted, he had already fallen heavily to the ground, with unbearable pain in his chest.

Liu Jilian did not stop, he rode forward and stabbed again. Zhe Bu Luo raised his bow to block, but failed, and the stab pierced his face, blood and flesh flew everywhere, and he fell off his horse and died.

"Those who dismount and surrender will not be killed!"

Liu Jilong repeated it again as he rode his horse across the cavalry formation.

At the same time, Hu Siguang, Li Ji, Ma Cheng and others had led the elite cavalry of Ganzhou to surround the elite cavalry of Guzang.

Looking at the elite cavalry from Ganzhou that were several times larger than their own, and then looking at Liu Jilian who was blocking the formation, hundreds of elite cavalry from Guzang dismounted and threw away their weapons.

Seeing this, the elite cavalry from Ganzhou rushed forward, and Liu Jilian also rode to the front of Shang Moling's formation, looking down at the foreign general who was trying to get up.

Shang Moling struggled for a while but still couldn't get up. He could only look up at Liu Jilong on the horse with angry eyes.

The two looked at each other, perhaps they had never thought that this would be the first time they met...

(End of this chapter)